What about Parents?

[GrayIguana]

I'm rather proud of my parent's attitude toward my playing. In highschool, as long as my grades were good, the game was good. I also overheard my mother defend our playing to other parents and say stuf like "at least they're in the house where I can see them and they're not drinking or getting into trouble."

For his part, Dad has always been rather well-read in fantasy. He asked if he could play once while I was in highschool, and astounded my friends on how easily he could sense a trap or ambush simply from having read so many similar stories. I still remember him chastising someone, "never touch a door covered in runes and skulls. What do you think is going to happen?" At the time though, ma-bear "as she was referred to" eventually said it wasn't right for a 30-something to be hanging around a bunch of highschoold kids. (By the way, Dad is only 20 years older than me, if you're wondering about the math.)

Of course he later dropped in a couple times for some games in college.

Now he plays regularly in my quarterly games. What started out as a way to get old friends together has now attracted about 4 other family memebers. I now have my dad (age 54), a sister, and two cousins who join the group on occassion. In fact, we will be playing on Memorial Day weekend, and this will be the first game dad has missed in years.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

My mother, when she met my wife for the first time, apologized that "he plays those d&d games". She was horrified to hear my wife respond "I know, we met playing live action vampire"

My dad thinks it's basicaly for losers, but it helped me meet people and get hitched.
My mom still thinks d&d is a tool of the Devil, but has resigned to my eternal damnation.

Ah well, you can't pick your family...

All right!! Let's roll dice for his eternal damnation!!!

I'm surprised she didn't relent when you got hitched from gaming....

 

[Lance_Work]

Hey, good thread! Like someone else said earlier, it brought back good memories. I first got interested in D&D when I was 9 years old. A friend of mine had the original brown books that were his older brothers. He showed another friend and I how to play. My friend and I took to it immediately. My parents were quite concerned for a while, but eased off. I found out years later that my dad sat outside the door to my room and listened to us. When he realized that it was just "let's pretend with dice" (quoting from an earlier post) he didn't worry about it anymore.

I'm in my early thirties now, and still play regularly. My parents are surprised that I'm still playing. Like many other parents, they considered it a juvenile game.

My in-laws, well, that's a different story! They tolerate that fact that I game, and that I got their daughter gaming also! They have gotten better in the 5+ years of my marriage. In the past, any time that it is brought up, they would scowl and give me disapproving looks. Now they accept it as a hobby my wife and I can enjoy together. For a couple of devout Mormons, that's a big step!

 

[pogre]

My brother and I started playing in the 70's and my Mom would play too. Mom was very liberal (Dad died when we were very young) in our upbringing and thought gaming was great as it made us use our imaginations and read. The scary stories about satanism used to amuse her to no end.

Today she thinks it's great we still game as it provides a social outlet to touch base with friends - much like taking a fishing trip with buddies. My step-father would choose Bridge over RPGs or other games, but views it as a harmless pasttime.

 

[Ranes]

My parents are no longer with us (unless, that is, they're playing a spectacularly cruel joke on me). But when I started gaming, they were fine with it, as long as it didn't adversely affect my school work. They got it, too. My dad had bought me a book on wargaming when I was ten years old and was able to make the leap from that to RPGs when I explained it. My mum was just used to her sons developing esoteric interests. Nevertheless, when it became apparent that I wanted to work in the industry, they were sceptical if not completely scornful of the idea.

My dad and I had always had a fairly cold and even confrontational relationship, classic stuff from a psychological standpoint. He almost never expressed his approval of anything I did, which just drove me to achieve something. As soon as I'd finished school, I left home and started work. I got into the industry straight away and was rewarded by a few lucky breaks. Meanwhile, my parents moved to the country, still somewhat sceptical about my chosen line of work.

When my dad passed away, several years later, I took some time off, to spend with my mum. One evening, I went for a drink in the pub that had been my dad's local (he'd possessed the carousing skill of a merchant prince on the Spinward Main). In the pub, I ended up talking to a guy who had become a close friend of my dad's. This fellow knew a lot about gaming and he knew what I did for a living. And of course, he knew all this because my old man had told him about it. And without me saying a word, he told me exactly how proud my dad had been of what I'd done.

 

[Kastil]

My parents introduced D&D to me and once I started dating my now husband, he joined our merry band. Although we don't get together to play like we used to, my dad still gets Dragon magazine and passes it onto us once he's read it. I've tried to get to get my father into online gaming but he's not the fastest typer and his eyes aren't what they used to be. Of course I think it's an excuse and who knows... one of these days my husband and I will get the old group together, which also includes my son's Godparents. Ah, the memories!

 

[Dinkeldog]

Mine do not care, although I can the occasional "You are an adult, you should not be playing game anymore" speech from my Dad. He thinks RPGs, computer games, reading sf/f are all things that kids do.

About the same experience for me, but swap in Mom for Dad. My Dad figures if I'm having fun then it's all good. The thing is Mom loves sci-fi and is addicted to everything sci-fi that ever comes on tv. She just doesn't have any use for anything fantasy. Go figure.

 

[hong]

About the same experience for me, but swap in Mom for Dad. My Dad figures if I'm having fun then it's all good. The thing is Mom loves sci-fi and is addicted to everything sci-fi that ever comes on tv. She just doesn't have any use for anything fantasy. Go figure.

How does she handle something like Star Wars, with the katanae lightsabers and magic the Force?

 

[Tetsubo]

Back in HS my Mother wasn't too happy about my gaming habits. Not because it was "evil" but because it kept my attention where as school work did not. Gaming of course is interesting, school work was not. I blame the lame teachers, not gaming. But at one point she confiscated my gaming materials. While completely legal on her part, I have never forgiven her for the invasion of my privacy. I'm 40 now and I'm still annoyed with her over that...

NOW - I don't think my Mother is even aware that I still game. (Not that I have a game at the moment... *grumble*) My Father seems a tad surprised that it still holds my interest but doesn't really care. I have my gaming books delivered to his house and he's fine with that. My sister never really understood the whole gaming hobby, then or now. Though she did have a crush on one of my GM's at one time... He had that effect on women...

Most inportant though, my wife is supportive of my hobby.

 

[paulsometimes]

My parents never really understood it, but weren't really bothered with it unless it got in the way of school work. They just figured it was some hobby my brothers and I would grow out of. Now that we haven't... My dad doesn't say much, but when he does, it's to the affect of "When will you grow up?" and my mom says pretty much the same thing, but tries to sound supportive when saying it.

The parents of my friends that game had always been the same, and until reading all the different posts on here, I'd pretty much assumed that's how it was the world over. Wow.

Paul